New building inspector wades through paperwork

Monday

Feb 13, 2017 at 7:00 AM

By Bari HassmanBanner Staff

WELLFLEET — After more than three months without a full-time building inspector, which resulted in a backlog of paperwork and complaints from some builders, Justin Post took over the job on Monday, Jan. 23. Post previously worked full-time in Provincetown as its building inspector before becoming the building commissioner and chief zoning enforcement officer in Chatham.

Richard Stevens, the former Wellfleet building inspector, resigned from the job on Oct. 21, 2016. While the town looked for a replacement, Brian Harrison, retired building commissioner for Orleans, worked from eight to 10 hours a week doing inspections and compliance work in the field while Sibel Asantugrul, a registered architect who is licensed to do inspections, handled building permits and plan review one day a week.

The Mass. State Building Code says the building inspector has 30 days to respond to an application for a building permit after its submission but, apparently, that didn’t always happen.

“There is a backlog of permits but I haven’t seen any jobs canceled because of it,” Harrison said. “We’ve had additional help from all the people in the department.”

But an off-Cape contractor, who did not want his name used because he worried that future work would be affected, told the Banner that he has been waiting for four months for a building permit to do renovation work on Lieutenant’s Island. And he’s not the only one who has had problems.

“It’s been more challenging going through the permitting process,” Matt Cole, chief executive officer of Cape Associates, said. “Construction is second only to hospitality here. Processing permits and getting jobs underway in a timely way is very important for the economy of Wellfleet. … Wellfleet town staff did a great job keeping things moving, but it’s evident the job requires a full-time person.”

Post also stated that no business was lost due to the backlog, but he admitted there was a lag in customer service and inspectional services were delayed.

“There was definitely a lack of servicing to the contractors,” said Post. “We’re also dealing with a backlog of civil matter complaints, neighbors that don’t get along, that haven’t been addressed since November. When I started we were backlogged from mid-November 2016. We’re already caught up to Christmas and expect to be completely caught up with permits by mid-February.”